CALLED TO BE CHURCH PARISHES REPRESENTED: Our Lady of the Assumption; Our Lady of Mercy; St. Ambrose; St. Clare’s; St. Francis de Sales; St. Pius X PURPOSE: LITURGY - - THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF OUR LIFE TOGETHER AS CHURCH FACILITATOR: SR. ANNE BRYAN-SMOLIN REPORTER: LILLIAN CUNNIFF SR. ANNE: Before we begin, maybe the best thing might be for us to begin with a couple of reports, and then we'll get to the prayers, and then into this evening's topic. I hope that you took the time -- that group put together all of the stuff that we have been doing and sent it out to everyone, and I hope you took the time to really look over it. Because we can't be discouraged when we start looking at that. You people have done tremendous, I mean, really and truly. I don't know the whole overview of the diocese but we are so far ahead. We have the best group. But right now we have two reports that we're going to give. Steve is going to give us one report, and Brian is going to give the other. STEVE MAWN: At the last meeting of the LPG in July, a committee was formed with two different names: Our committee was called an Ad Hoc Committee or an Oversight Committee which was going to look at the recommendations and suggestions that had come in through the meetings and sort of sift through it, and try and prioritize and make some recommendations so that it just doesn't sit there in the transcript. Frank is the chair of the committee. And there's one representative from each of the parishes. Frank went through the transcripts of all of the seven sessions, and he put together a list which ended up being 29 pages long of all of the ideas, recommendations, and suggestions that have come from this large group gathering since January and February. The committee has met twice to try to sift through, try to get its bearings of what we are supposed to do with all of this stuff, and how do we go through it all. The culmination at this point is the recommendations that were passed on to the six pastors -- or the five pastors and the parish life director -- a few days ago from the committee. Essentially looking at the information that has been collected so far, the suggestions that have been made, the ideas, the first recommendation as you see from the printed sheet that's going around was “communication”. They recommended that a working group be formed to look into this and possibly develop a newsletter that would be issued by the combined six parishes in the Town of Colonie. We're trying not to limit the scope of that group -- you know, certainly also looking at internet resources and other things as a means of communication. The second recommendation dealt with the proposal for a “joint liturgical service” celebration pulling the six parishes together at a neutral site. And the recommendation was that the -- perhaps we could refer it to the Prayer and Worship and Liturgy Committees of the six parishes -- to encourage those committees to start connecting together. The third recommendation was something that came out really from the last gathering, “pulling together a comprehensive list of all of the ministries and programs of each of the parishes” so that we can encourage networking interconnection between the different committees that handle different responsibilities in the parishes. You know, certainly if we are going to be working together in the future, it's probably a good idea to start getting the people that do the work to at least start knowing the other people who do similar work in the neighboring parishes. So, those are the three recommendations. And we weren't really sure should it just go down to the pastor group and wait for their decision, their reactions, their response, their whatever, or does it go here or whatever. Right now the five pastors and the parish life director are considering these recommendations. And that's where it's at. We will continue to look at it as additional ideas and suggestions are brought up. Rather than going line by line through the 29 pages, the six members of the committee sort of gleaned that these three were like the icing on the cake where there was at least some chance of actually doing something in the near term, rather than waiting till God knows when to do something together. So, that is the work of the committee to date. And the committee will continue going through the transcripts, the reports and things, and try to discern additional recommendations that could be sent up as, I guess, trial balloons. BRIAN EVERS: Good evening. My name is Brian Evers. I'm the youth minister here at St. Pius and I'm part of the task force that was created out of the Local Planning Group for youth ministry. Grades six through twelve is what we're looking at. And we've met twice now. And after our meeting last night -- we met last at St. Ambrose -- there's a little bit of confusion on our part as to what our goal really is, what did the Local Planning Group expect from us as a task force. We talked about that for about an hour and a half last night, and we came up with some of our own goals and objectives. And the first one is if we're going to work together, as Steve just mentioned, we really need to know what the individual parishes youth ministries look like. So, our plan within the next couple of weeks is for each parish to distribute kind of an outline of what their ministry looks like -- over, like, a year's plan what that ministry looks like. And on September 27th we'll meet again, and at that meeting each parish will have an opportunity to get up in front of the group and our task force and explain what our ministry looks like, what our meeting schedules look like, what the Confirmation program looks like, all of the different components of our ministry. And the number two of our goals is to assess what are the needs of the young people that we all work with, and the needs of their families. And as we talked last night, I think we already know a lot of those needs. But really to clarify what are those needs, and to identify some of those needs that we might not be aware of. And I think based on number one, what our programs do, we could probably find out some more things with what those needs are. And the third is taking number one, what our ministries do, number two, the needs, how can we work together as the churches of Colonie and meet those needs. So, before we can get to the collaborative part, we have to figure out what we each do and see what all of our ministries look like. So, our next meeting is the 27th of September, and I know we have planned to continue to meet after that as well. SR. ANNE: And what's important is that we keep these recommendations with us. That's what's going to be the package deal that we send in. Remember everybody is working real hard. Tonight we are going to really start to reflect a bit on understanding the liturgy, and how it nourishes us, and how we even participate in the creation of the liturgy and how people -- how everyone has a role in it. And so, that's the focus for tonight as we start to do this. And we are hoping that what will come out of it is that we'll kind of come together and take a look at how -- you know, what really composes the liturgy, and what do we need to be aware of, and how can people be able to play roles in the liturgy, to know that they are part of it so it's not just the priests up there doing their thing and that kind of thing. If you read over some of those articles, that was one of the major concerns that the articles will find. CALL TO PRAYER: Fr. Farano began the prayer. (The Reader was Fr. Childs, and the response was sung by the participants at the meeting.) SR. ANNE: As we look at tonight's agenda, it suggests that we start with a large group discussion. And that “brainstorm” word is an important word. What it means is everything gets put on the table, and there's no judgment, there's no discussion on it right now. That's what the whole thing of brainstorming is. So, if we brainstorm everything possible that we could use –- if someone says Farano and I say Christmas tree, we have to write down Christmas tree because that's what was put on the table. We don't get into discussions about why it can be, or how it can be, or whatever. But I think it might be a good way to begin. We're asked to brainstorm the elements of worship, what is necessary for worship, liturgy, and sacraments to be truly celebrations of community faith. So, let's use that process of brainstorming, and we'll have it all recorded. So yell nice and loud. Think about it, all of you together, for a couple seconds. What elements of worship, what's necessary for worship, liturgy, sacraments, to be truly celebrations of community faith? PARTICIPANT: SR. ANNE: Okay. I think it's important for you to at least look at that definition -- and I suspect many of you have – “Catholic worship is the gathering of God's people in the midst of which Jesus Christ is present to nourish by His word and sacrament, to give thanks and praise to the Father and, through the Spirit, send forth the assembly in service to the world”. As we look at that, as you think about that, there are some questions. It's under small group discussions. Take some time to think about your experiences. I would like to suggest that, instead of us doing this on a one-by-one kind of line, that we break into these tables and mixtures of parishes -- so not just your own parish, but a mixture of parishes -- and read over those. And then talk for a few minutes, what does that really mean, what are the reflections that you want to bring, not one-by-one, but just kind of read it over. We'll take a couple of seconds and quietly read as soon as everybody gets to their table. Read these experiences over, and then share it with that group. And then after about maybe seven minutes or so, I'm going to ask if the groups would give us some feedback. (Group split up into six small groups, and a ten minute discussion followed among each individual group.) SR. ANNE: What I would like to suggest is that we hear what each table would like to share with us. And then we'll have some type of discussion if you want, and add to the question there. But if we could first just hear a person from each table who would tell us what was discussed. PARTICIPANT: The purpose of the liturgy is to hear the word of God and to partake in the body and blood of Christ. Those are the two foremost purposes, but also to praise God and to participate fully in the liturgy, to reconfirm our beliefs in our Catholic faith, and be reminded of the life that we should be living in Christ. And then we talked about expectations for the liturgy. And some of the things that came up were: PARTICIPANT: I think what we'll do is just add to what was said already instead of repeating a lot of the same points. If we look at the first point, what we believe is the purpose of the liturgy of the word, I think one thing that we would add to that is it's an opportunity to give thanks to the Lord. Some of the challenges and obstacles that prevent liturgy worship from fulfilling its purpose, I think that we would like to add the challenge of keeping the next generation involved. I think as a group our table felt that for the next generation we see or we perceive less attendance by, let's say, the under 20 age than we saw when we were growing up. We would also add to the challenges what we call distracting elements, such as sound systems, heating systems, talking in parish pews, things of that nature. And another obstacle would be lack of preparation and training from those people involved in the liturgy. We did speak a little bit about what do you think are the elements that make the liturgy and worship meaningful, and we have several bullet points here, including preparation, the attitude of the parishioners, their involvement in the liturgy, the overall enthusiasm (not only in the parishioners, but the clergy, too), and the commitment of all involved. SR. ANNE: Maybe we could do that, just add to the things that are on your list that haven't been said. PARTICIPANT: We said that the purpose of the liturgy and worship, one of the basics was rejuvenating with the opportunity to grow. And the expectations from the Mass and sacraments is that we want to feel better when we leave the church than when we went in. We also agree with the preparation. And we also -- you know, the inclination is that you get out of it what you actually put into it. The personal experiences, it's just that we want to be refreshed. And again what happens to you in the other question is what you put into it is what you're going to get out of it. The elements that make the liturgy or worship are being prayerful and having no distractions. And singing by everybody is the other one. Challenges and obstacles, the lack of participation from the parishioners, the intolerance to senior parishioners and small children. And then the one here -- and this bothers me a lot, too -- is that when parishioners come in the church, they like to sit right on the end of the pew instead of moving in. So, you’ve got to climb over them. Moving in would be appreciated. PARTICIPANT: I've been waiting to say this for a while. I'm Mary Beth Buchner from the Catholic Community of Colonie. And I have to just go real quickly because I can't decipher too much of what was said. But the purpose of the liturgy is to refocus, to praise, thanksgiving, to be challenged, it's an opportunity for communities, spiritual satisfaction, it's a place for our relationship with God and others to be developed; it gives us the strength to deal with life issues, and it's a place for spiritual renewal. Our expectations were that we wanted homilies, or we hope to see homilies, that we're able to apply to real life situations that we could take out with us to help us in real life. Our expectations were a feeling of home, the familiarity, we're used to certain liturgies, and we got used to them and liked them. We hoped that people would be fully conscious and participatory. We want a sense of excitement, of faith, this is the core of who we are, and this is the most important thing we do in the week, and we want to see that. Our personal experiences during Mass……we want to feel a feeling of community, especially when we're not living near home, or family, or even when we're traveling different places and go to liturgy, we want to feel at home and be aware of some of the people around you. Some of the challenges are similar. Engaging our young people, they don't see liturgy as a value necessarily. And some other challenges are just environmental problems like the sound system, seeing people that are looking for entertainment rather than coming to contribute, looking to receive rather than just ______ And what happens to you -- we didn't really specifically address that -- but everyone talked about how feelings of love come over us especially when we are eucharistic ministers, and we are giving out communion; it's a different feeling, it's like sort of a miraculous thing that happens. PARTICIPANT: For our expectations we had: Personal experience……it's the one time a week when you don't have to be tied to a clock. Again, a lot of the same feelings that all of you had expressed. The elements that make liturgy meaningful, and prayerful, and fruitful……we came up with: Challenges and obstacles: PARTICIPANT: We'll only add one thing to this, and that is that under meaningful elements. We talked about the tradition and the continuity of the script, the universality of the church, that wherever we went we knew -- even if we didn't understand the language -- no matter where we were that we were able to relate back to the skeleton that is the liturgy. And then that sort of flipped itself into an obstacle or challenge. SR. ANNE: First of all, you heard a lot of similarities and I know that there were things that were not said on some people's list simply because it would have been redundant. What are you sitting here thinking or what has hit you, what was missing, or what got stirred for you? PARTICIPANT: There seems to be a focus on the liturgy simply being the Mass. But there are other liturgical actions and celebrations in the church. PARTICIPANT: I forgot to mention because I didn't turn my page over: The Liturgy of the Hours also is important in the church liturgy. PARTICIPANT: Also that celebration of the sacraments doesn't actually occur during Mass………going to confession, the anointing of the sick. SR. ANNE: What else or other comments? Go ahead. PARTICIPANT: I would say that what's coming out is that there's an importance of the laity, of the parishioners, in the celebration, in this particular case, in the Mass. I think when you take a step back and think of how many parishioners are involved in the Mass, if you start with the greeters -- at Our Lady of Mercy we have four greeters, we have six ushers, we have nine eucharistic ministers, we have two people giving the reading -- there's an involvement that's very important. And their preparedness and their attitude are essential to how the celebration of the Mass and worship comes off. SR. ANNE: What other things jump out at you? PARTICIPANT: I think it's the universality of the Catholic church. I don't know a lot about other faiths, but I'm making an assumption here that perhaps one Methodist church to another – which is a North American church -- there's not that continuity across countries, across states, across the world, and not only that, but going back in time for centuries. I think it's a very unique thing. PARTICIPANT: I think to encourage people who are in the ministries -- people at my table spoke very beautifully about their experience as eucharistic ministers and what that has brought to them and what they see in the faces of the people that come forward. I think to encourage people in these ministries -- lectors, eucharistic ministers, greeters -- to share with other people in the parish exactly what that experience is like and how it has deepened their relationship with God. PARTICIPANT: One of the things that took a lot of our conversation was the fact that I've seen – I was like in 7th or 8th grade when the Second Vatican Council was happening, so I kind of lived through the transition. But there are still a lot of people -- and even a lot younger than me -- who are living in the old methods. They don't sing, they barely participate in the Sign of Peace, they're always in the back of the church, they're always the first ones that are going to be leaving. And I think one of the big challenges that we have -- and I don't have a solution –- but somehow we need to be able to reach out and let everybody know that you're welcomed, and you're needed, and we want you, and we like you to be here. And I think too many people are still in the old way of thinking as that document read -- you know, this is the priest's Mass and I'm just here to be a participant, because if I don't come my mother said I'm going to go to hell. So, I don't know the solution, but I still sense in our parish -- which has a pretty powerful group of people who I worship with -- but there's still a large segment that just sit back and don't get themselves involved. And I think it would be a lot more powerful and a better experience if we just had everybody involved. FR. FARANO: If it's any consolation, when I missed Mass, not only was I told I was going to hell, she created hell. SR. ANNE: Okay. I think this kind of planted the seeds for the next piece, the next piece that we're going to take a look at. I'm going to give you a little break because there are wonderful refreshments over here. But then we'll come back and look at the future possibilities that this planning group would like to suggest to experience high quality, meaningful, and transforming worship in the years to come. And I think this that what we’ve talked about so far has put some seeds down for us. (A short recess followed.) SR. ANNE: Let's move down to the challenge now. We listened to all of the things – the experiences, and the expectations that we had. Move down to the part that says challenge. What are the future possibilities that this planning group wants to look at to experience high quality worship in years to come? That's the task that we have to take a look at right now. So, what are the future possibilities? PARTICIPANT: Two of us don't understand the question. What are the future possibilities; like, good, never, or are they asking what do you want to see implemented? SR. ANNE: Well, implemented to have a meaningful worship service. What do we want, what are the recommendations? The reality is we're talking about the liturgy, and the church, the whole diocese. PARTICIPANT: Greater parishioner participation. SR. ANNE: Does anybody want to talk about that? That's come up a lot of times tonight, greater community participation. Parishioners really being part of everything, feeling part of everything. What kind of recommendations would we make? And so, who says a choir or a cantor has to stay rooted? Why not have that person, if they feel comfortable to do it, walk up and down the aisles encouraging people to sing? PARTICIPANT: A few moments ago we were talking about the possible need for megachurches, and that's going to make things a lot more impersonal. Maybe we want to think outside of the box and think of our liturgy not necessarily having to be tied to Saturday or Sunday. For example, we were in the Outer Banks and there was a Wednesday evening Mass that took the place of your Sunday liturgy. If we don't want to have these huge churches, looking forward to the fact of what happened to the priest, maybe we have to think of something else. PARTICIPANT: I'm just wondering exactly what do we mean by participation. Does a person have to sing, or collect the envelopes, or do something like that? I know in our church there's a lady that must be 90 years old and she just sits there, and she is really participating. I think we have to figure out what we mean by participation. I think there are all different levels, all different meanings to that particular word. And also I think that it shouldn't be by coercion; it should be by attraction. Not making people sing, but making people want to sing. And I don't know how to do all of that. But that's the thought I had. PARTICIPANT: I think primarily participation is getting them there. Not only do we want them to want to participate, you want them to be there on a consistent basis. That's where you choose to be. PARTICIPANT: I would like to see shared, like, what time the liturgy is over in the surrounding parishes, and also maybe coordinate times a little bit. Because everybody's Mass is at 4:30 or 4:00 or whatever. That kind of thing might be nice. SR. ANNE: What kind of recommendations do want to make? Think about it. These are all wonderful, wonderful things that talk about expectations, and challenges. But what do we need to think about to make those things happen? PARTICIPANT: Where are the priests going to come from to celebrate Mass and consecrate the Eucharist? PARTICIPANT: I like the idea of getting together prior to the Mass and discussing the readings and the gospel. Because it's true, especially with the Old Testament, sometimes I don't know what the heck they're talking about. PARTICIPANT: Do you mean for lectors? PARTICIPANT: No for anyone who wants to go. PARTICIPANT: Richard showed me a copy of Tom's article. And there's one statement in there that I found to be tremendously powerful. I'm probably speaking sacrilege, but in order to free up our priests to take on a more -- to be concerned with the spiritual aspect of our lives, I think we're going to have to change responsibilities and alleviate our pastors of the administration stuff. I can remember recently we had to have an order placed and we spent two or three meetings with our pastors there for probably a grand total of ten hours. And I'm thinking to myself there's got to be something more important for him to do than to sit here at these meetings. He believes it's the right thing to do and I don't fault him, but I think that has to be looked at as to what kind of responsibilities are we asking of our priests. And if we're giving them things that distract them from the mission of spreading the good news of Jesus to us and inspiring us, then maybe that should be looked at. SR. ANNE: The article he's referring to was in this week's “Evangelist” under Called To Be Church, written by our very own Father Tom. If you haven't read, it's wonderful. Nice picture, too. What do we need to stir it up so that this all happens? PARTICIPANT: Wake people up. PARTICIPANT: I think we talked about this one aspect before, but people need to be invited. And it starts small, but I think there are a lot of people sitting in those pews who are right on the edge, and are maybe debating with themselves, are they talented enough, are they confident enough to be involved in whatever ministry. And just somebody personally inviting them might push them over the edge. Not everyone, not all the time, but it almost has to be a formal program of individuals reaching out, individual invitation. PARTICIPANT: Back in the days when Monsignor Ryan was pastor of St. Clare's, if he called you and asked you to do something, you did it. There was no question about did you have time or anything else. You did it. And now the next pastor came along, he said I'm not asking people to do things because they're only going to do it because I'm a priest. But does that really matter why we do something? I've been a eucharistic minister probably longer than some of you are here. But we really could use newer people. I've been a eucharistic minister since the late 1970s. And I truly love it. You're right. It changes who you are, and it makes you live your life a certain way because you are a eucharistic minister. And I think if we ask people individually like Monsignor did, maybe we would have other people. PARTICIPANT: And I think I touched on this before, that those of us who attend church, who really get it, or really walk away with something, maybe it's time we told people about that, that we actually -- maybe in Stewart's or wherever – I don't mean preaching. You know, I would share a great pair of new shoes that maybe feel good. Well, hello. Maybe I went to Mass and something really good happened, or I was praying, or sharing with the friend. We need to share what we get from God. You and me; not Father, not Sister, but you and me, quietly at Mass. I mean, I've said to people, sometimes I feel like I can levitate right out of the place, and I told people that. And I told people other things. Like, I was part of the RCIA, an I'll be honest with you, now when I put my hand in that baptismal font, for me that's a recommitment to my baptism. When I do this, I say this is in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart. We have to say those things that help us be who we are. And the gift of faith that God has given us, we need to share that. As Catholics, I don't think we do that. We leave that to the evangelicals or whoever. I don't think you have to be loud or pushy. Just simply say I'm joy-filled because I go to church, I'm with my friends, God is good. As my husband says, "Praise God's name, let's eat". PARTICIPANT: To piggyback on what Ann said, one of the things when I belonged to another parish, I stepped back as a eucharistic minister to make room for someone else to come forward and have those graces. And sometimes I think in our ministries within our church we need to step back and allow other people to do it and not be the one that does it every week, make room for everybody. PARTICIPANT: I would just like to mention because we talked about this an awful lot right in the beginning, and what I'm hearing right now is the three suggestions from the ad hoc committee. Communications, everybody is talking about communications. And we're talking about maybe even a joint liturgical service. And the other one is that we have a comprehensive listing of all of the ministries and programs. Another thing was to have a listing of all the Masses. But I also think that, in the future, we need to have all this, we need to be able to get all of our communities together and finally meet so that we can start maybe having a service that is the same no matter where we go, where we feel totally welcome when we go to another parish. Why? Because we are members of the Catholic Church of Colonie. PARTICIPANT: To some extent we have a diversity of Masses. You know, I go to the one I like in the parish, and people sometimes go to the parish that they like because of the way it feels or whatever, some of which is personal and we all experience things differently. One of the things to consider is maybe more ad hoc Masses with young -- like, high school/college age kids or something like that to bring them into coordinating with some kind of activity or something that might be fun. So, that might be something instead of just -- I guess we usually have Masses during the week in the morning or something like that, and you have your weekend Masses. But there could be other Masses as part of other activities. PARTICIPANT: One thing that just struck me I guess I was reminded of. I've been a godmother several times. And it's only now in my later years that I realize that every year I should have celebrated that occasion with the young people who I was godmother for -- you know, have that day as a special day with them. When they made their First Communion, how many of us know when we made our Confirmation? Maybe if you're a Confirmation sponsor, maybe that's something we need to celebrate with those young people in a very special way. We celebrate their birthdays, but maybe we need to celebrate their sacramental days and celebrate our own. SR. ANNE: Did all of you have a chance to pick up Archbishop Mahoney's letter? That was one of the recommendations -- they didn't have permission to be able to print it so they suggested that you look it up on the web site. And if you get a chance, it's a pretty interesting article. I'm not going to totally summarize it, it's lengthy. But a few things that were mentioned were the jubilee years -- it was written for the year 2000 -- but he mentioned how important the liturgy is, and that's something we're going to focus on. He's the Archbishop of Los Angeles. And he wrote about the liturgy and how it has to feed people. All of the things that people have been saying here tonight are very important things. And he also talked about how it cannot be the fact that we go to a church just because the priest is the one that's putting on the entertainment or show. He talked about that. And he also talked about the fact that we have to make it meaningful enough that people will come and stay. He said we will know if we're successful in our liturgies if people stay until the end, but not go because it's a quickie -- you know, I go to this liturgy because it's the fastest one and I can get out in a hurry or whatever. I'm just wondering if any of that settled with any of you as you read those things. Because he did a pretty good summary. It was on the web site. They suggested that we look at it. It was on your Appendix 1. Anybody want to make any comments about that? Or looking at our own church -- I'm not just talking about Los Angeles. I just threw that out because that was one of the references that we could have looked at. I don't know how you get people to stay. PARTICIPANT: Not giving them the bulletin until the Mass is over. PARTICIPANT: I don't think you can use coercion. I don't think that's a good approach. You know, you must do this, or you have to do that. You have to challenge people, but you can't make people do it. I don't think that's the way to approach it. PARTICIPANT: I think one problem is that people have to have a sense that going to Mass is important. And if it's important you are going to make time for it, you're going to commit to it because it's important. SR. ANNE: Anybody want to comment on that? PARTICIPANT: I'm just thinking, like a lot of people -- you talk about a small faith community where you really get to know one another because it's a very familiar thing, that's where the faith oftentimes grows very strong. But with the closing of parishes, it seems as though we're moving in the opposite direction. We're having larger and larger gatherings. And that seems to me to be one of the things that in the future we'll have to look at. How can we have these large gatherings -- which I think are very important -- but to me there's a big difference between watching a Yankee game on a television alone and going to Yankee stadium. And our pastor goes out to California and comes back enthused about the massive demonstrations and things that he attends out there, these conferences, you know. So, I think both are important; the small communities, but also the larger communities. And it seems to me that somehow we have to deal with that, have both of them and connect them in some way. SR. ANNE: Has everything been said? PARTICIPANT: Talking about maybe how we can make our worship a little more meaningful. Has there ever been any consideration to some sort of a once a year or twice a year Colonie-wide youth Mass? We're talking about getting the next generation involved in the Mass. And I don't know if you guys or anybody here is familiar with Excel or the Youth for Christ Organization in Albany, but they do a once-a-year weekend in January that we send -- from St. Francis we send a group of our young people to. And I've been up there to sponsor it, or to just make sure they're behaving I guess. And it's about 1,200 high school age kids from all denominations who come together once a year for a weekend. We don't have to do anything that big, but have we ever thought about a Colonie-wide youth Mass pulling from all of the parishes maybe once a year or twice a year to try to get our youth more involved? I think it would be very dynamic. PARTICIPANT: Just to follow up on that, we just had a youth conference in July in Auriesville -- just in case people weren't aware of that, not seeing it in the “Evangelist” newspaper or bulletins or anything like that -- there was a diocesan-wide youth conference in Auriesville this past July for three days over a long weekend. So, there are opportunities for that. Maybe we need better communication so it's better known that these things are happening. PARTICIPANT: Last November there was the Diocesan Youth Conference with probably about four or five hundred teenagers from across the diocese, whereas the Albany/Auriesville one was not directly sponsored by, or organized by, the diocese. The one in November was sponsored by the OEC Catholic schools office and vocations office. So, we did have that. It was over Veterans Day weekend. But that wasn't just the Town of Colonie. Terry's point is to try to get the teens, the young people, from the six parishes together, not diocesan-wide. We have to start smaller. FR. FARANO: I think that one of the problems is in-house. We all have different approaches; for example, youth ministry. And some approaches sometimes are looked down on by others. And I don't think that's right. I don't think we all have to have the same youth ministry program. And because we don't have the same youth ministry program, we can't cooperate in somebody else's. I think that Auriesville one is an example. That's sponsored by Life Teen, right? And I think sometimes because it's Life Teen, and some parishes don't have that, it's not the model we adopt. We think, well, we shouldn't have anything to do with that. I think that a lot of the things that we could do together first require us all, each parish -- not just with the youth ministry, but with a lot of things -- to realize that to be a little less defensive, a little more willing to say, “well, that's not totally my cup of tea, but it's good for my people to participate in that”. I just think we get very proprietary. This has been a very positive meeting, so don't feel like I'm dumping the water, that's not what I'm doing. But I think we each have to look within ourselves and we have to overcome some obstacles within ourselves, we who minister, if we're going to really be the Church of Colonie at St. Pius, the Church of Colonie at St. Ambrose, the Church of Colonie at St. Francis. Just like there's adversity in the universal church, we're still the Catholic church, at the local church in Albany. So, I think sometimes we leave here with the subcommittees and all. But then when it gets there, the things that are proprietary are the things that bubble to the surface. You know what I'm saying? I think we each have to say within ourselves “what do I have to put aside myself”, not just individually but the parish itself, “what do I have to put aside in myself for the sake of cooperating with others”. SR. ANNE: Anybody else? We really covered a lot of ground tonight, we really have. PARTICIPANT: Just a thought. We talked a lot tonight about our responsibility, leadership responsibility. I think a lot has to go back to the individual people. We can only do so much, and they have to take some responsibility for themselves. And I think that message needs to get back to them. We can't make them active if they don't want to be. It's their responsibility to accept or not what we're offering. And if they opt not to accept it, that's their option. But it's their responsibility; it's not ours. SR. ANNE: Any other comments? PARTICIPANT: Someone was saying about how people don't really think that church is important any more. I realize that we're in a culture where how we look, how our nails or our hair is done, we're really into the -- I call it the earth suit. You know, this is the most important thing. And it is. But I think somehow we have got to let people know that we're also spiritual beings, and that we really need to take care of the spiritual part of ourselves, that we need to spend as much time and energy working on that as we do on how we look, and the exercise, and the dieting, and the pills, and whatever. I don't know how to do that. But I realize that we really need people somehow to understand that there is more to us than this, and that we darn well better start taking care of the part that goes on forever. PARTICIPANT: Since I was kind of ignorant about the Liturgy of the Hours -- I don't know if other people are more aware of it than I am -- but I would like to hear more about that and its place in the Catholic celebration of worship, and can we bring that in, in a public way, or is that something that's done privately? PARTICIPANT: It's on Tuesday nights at that place on Wolf Road. If you want to learn about the liturgy, we do night prayer, we do evening prayer, sitting meditation for half an hour, and night prayer. And it's at 7:00 o'clock at the Chapel. SR. ANNE: Anybody else? Okay. We've tipped up some soil tonight, threw out some wonderful responses. And I would like -- I believe we have already done what they asked us to do in that large group recommendation to identify the primary elements of meaningful worship and repeat the possibilities offered for achieving it in the future. I think we have really covered that. I don't want to speak for everybody here. So, is there anyone that says, "Wait a minute, my idea doesn't really fit in with that and I haven't had a chance to say it yet?" PARTICIPANT: I just want to add, our group at St. Ambrose met last week to prepare for this meeting. One of the things that was mentioned was -- you know, we talked about the word of God, and several things with the liturgy -- but one of our ideas was putting bibles in the pews because that's not something the Catholic church does. I know it costs money, but if we want to educate people -- I don't know how many of the parishioners actually read the bible, or have the bible in their home. One way to help them to become more familiar is to put the bible in the pews so that, during Mass, when the readings are taking place, they can at least -- you know, people flip through something anyway, they're flipping through the bulletin, and they might read the missalette. But they may start flipping through the bible, or at least -- just to help them become familiar with the bible. So, that was one idea we had…..to put bibles in the pews. SR. ANNE: Anyone else want to say anything, make any comments, throw out suggestions? I really do think we have covered that as we look over the whole agenda that we covered tonight. So, I'm not skipping it, I'm just saying I think it's already been covered. Then let us together end tonight's meeting in prayer. Let us pray together. (The closing prayer was recited by all.) SR. ANNE: Next month's meeting is on October 3rd, and it's also here. Thank you. The meeting concluded at 9:05 p.m.
LOCAL PLANNING GROUP MEETING
September 5, 2007
PARTICIPANT: When I was a kid over in Rensselaer, I went to St. Joseph's parish. Not that I say the priest should do this, but we happened to have a priest when I was in grammar school who would walk up and down the aisle because he had a marvelous voice, and he would be encouraging people to sing.